FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT TUITION - PAGE 4

Tuition breaks for faculty, staff and students at state institutions are needed to recruit and maintain the country's best and brightest, state university officials said. "There are many faculty members that we would not have unless there was a waiver program," Millersville University President Joseph Caputo told the House Select Committee on Higher Education at a hearing yesterday. "That might not mean anything to you, but it does to the academic community." The committee is holding hearings to address six different higher education issues, which its chairman, Rep. John Lawless, R-150th District, believes are abuses at Pennsylvania's college and universities.

Tuition for the aviation maintenance technology program at the Bucks County Area Vocational Technical School will go up for the 1994-1995 academic year. The school's Joint Operating Committee approved the tuition raise at last night's meeting. The largest increase will come for students enrolling in the program through one of the three school districts serviced by the vo-tech school -- Quakertown, Palisades and Pennridge. Tuition will rise from $1,891 to $2,079, an increase of $188.

Lehigh University will raise tution 7.75 percent in the 1990-1991 school year -- its lowest percentage increase in 13 years, the university said. At its quarterly meeting Friday, the Lehigh board of trustees approved a 7.75 percent increase in tuition, from $13,550 to $14,600. Total tuition, room and board next year for most undergraduates will be $19,230, an average increase of 7.3 percent. Scholarships for undergraduates funded by the university will increase nearly 14 percent, from $10 million to $11.4 million.

George J. Snerr of Jim Thorpe sacrificed to send four of his children to Marian Catholic High School. But that sacrifice has paid off in two ways for his youngest son. Snerr says his son, Steven A., received an excellent education at the Hometown school. And the tuition money the family paid Marian now will be credited to his tuition at Allentown College -- another Catholic school. "We feel the tuition that we paid at Marian for each of the four years is coming back," said Snerr, whose son will major in communications.

Students at Bucks County Community College will pay 11 percent more for their education next semester as the result of a tuition hike enacted this week by the college board of trustees. Tuition for full-time students will increase from $504 a semester to $560 a semester in January 1985. Tuition for part-time students will be raised from $36 a credit hour to $40 a credit hour. There are 9,600 students enrolled at the college in Newtown Township. While tuition is increasing, the trustees agreed to drop the capital fees that have been imposed on most students.

Students at Cedar Crest College will pay less than a 5 percent increase in tuition next year, the college announced last week. Tuition will be $13,720, while room and board will be $5,210. "Our trustees and alumnae have made a commitment to increase scholarship support to enable the best students to choose Cedar Crest," College President Dorothy Gulbenkian Blaney said in a prepared release. "Out of a $17.5 million budget, we will administer $4.3 million in student scholarships, grants, loans and work study."

A father whose appeal of an order to pay his son's college tuition changed the law in Pennsylvania is now suing his son to get reimbursed for about $11,000. Ronald C. Blue's case caused a stir in November when the state Supreme Court ruled that divorced and separated parents don't have a legal duty to pay for their children's higher education. The decision overturned 30 years of lower court rulings that said parents are responsible for paying their children's college education unless it creates an undue hardship for them.

The Moravian College Board of Trustees has approved a 10.45 percent increase in tuition, room and board, raising the average annual cost from $12,965 to $14,320. College President Roger Martin said recent attempts to bring faculty and staff salaries to the level of comparable institutions accounts for a large percentage of the 1989-90 tuition increase. Moravian, he said, compares itself to 14 other colleges, similar in size, including Muhlenberg College, Westminster College, Gettysburg College, Albright College and Lebanon Valley College.

Tuition will not increase at Montgomery County Community College, even though the harsh winter apparently decreased enrollment and tuition income. The college's trustees voted this week to keep tuition at $60 per credit in the 1994-95 school year. The last time tuition was raised was in the 1992-93 school year, when it went from $57 to $60 per credit. A normal course load is 15 credits per semester. "Holding tuition at an affordable rate is very important to the institution," Anders Back, the college's public information officer, said yesterday.

Students at Montgomery County Community College will not face a tuition hike in the 1989-90 school year. Last week the college's board of trustees unanimously voted to hold tuition for the 1989-90 school year at $600 per semester for full-time students. Part-time students will continue to pay $50 per credit hour. Full-time students are those who take up to 15 credit hours a semester while part-timers take less than 12 credit hours. James E. Mullen, chairman of the college board, said the trustees were able to hold the line on costs after the state increased its contribution to community colleges for full-time students.